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Accepted in Bella Bella: a Historical Exemplar of a Missionary Nursing Education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925

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Accepted in Bella Bella: a Historical Exemplar of a Missionary Nursing Education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925 Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière Volume 6 Issue 2 The History of Nursing Education | L’histoire Article 10 de la formation en sciences infirmières Accepted in Bella Bella: A historical exemplar of a missionary nursing education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925 Sarah C. Cook Trinity Westren University, [email protected] Sonya Grypma Trinity Western University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://qane-afi.casn.ca/journal Part of the Nursing Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Cook, Sarah C. and Grypma, Sonya (2020) "Accepted in Bella Bella: A historical exemplar of a missionary nursing education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925," Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière: Vol. 6: Iss. 2, Article 10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17483/2368-6669.1224 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière by an authorized editor of Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière. Accepted in Bella Bella: A historical exemplar of a missionary nursing education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925 Cover Page Footnote We would like to acknowledge the BC Conference of the United Church of Canada's Archives for going above and beyond to assist in finding hidden gems, and British Columbia History of Nursing Society, for their generous support. Nous voulons remercier le personnel de BC Conference of the United Church of Canada's Archives pour leur travail extraordinaire et pour l’aide à trouver des trésors cachés, ainsi que la British Columbia History of Nursing Society pour son appui généreux. This article is available in Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière: https://qane- afi.casn.ca/journal/vol6/iss2/10 Cook and Grypma: Nursing in Bella Bella Introduction In 1921, 18-year old Doris Nichols travelled 750 km from her home in Chilliwack, British Columbia (BC) to attend nursing school in the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) village of Wáglísla, known more widely as Bella Bella, on BC’s central coast. At that time, the island community of Bella Bella was home to approximately 350 Heiltsuk First Nations People and a small group (less than 20) of White Canadian Methodist missionaries (Darby, 1920; Statistics Canada, 1921). The R.W. Large Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses of Bella Bella (established in 1903) was the second, and smallest, of three hospital-based nursing schools in BC run by the Methodist Mission Society through the Methodist (later United) Church of Canada (see Figure 1) (Stephenson, 1925). Between 1903 and the school’s closure in 1935, the mission hospital in Bella Bella graduated twenty-three nurses—all unmarried, white women (see Figure 2 and Table 1). This article critically explores Doris Nichols’s years as a nurse and missionary-in-training between 1921 and 1925 as a lens through which to better understand the nature of, and influences on, early nursing education in BC—particularly in the historical, social, and dynamic cultural context of coastal First Nations communities. The findings provide new and rare insights into Indigenous-settler relations specific to early nursing education in BC. We conclude that the Methodist medical missionaries had an indelible influence on early nursing education in northern BC 1 and provided much-needed health care services while simultaneously reflecting and extending priorities, practices, and prejudices of the Euro-dominant Canadian south. Figure 1 Map of the Methodist Mission in British Columbia, 1924 Source: Reprinted from Stephenson, F. (1925). One Hundred Years of Canadian Methodist Missions (Vol. 1, 1824– 1924). Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, p. 160. 1 Although Bella Bella is located on an island in the central coast of BC, we use the term north and central interchangeably, in contrast to the coastal south, which generally refers to communities on and south of Vancouver Island. Published by Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière, 2020 1 Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2020], Art. 10 Figure 2 Graduate Nurses of the Bella Bella ~ Rivers Inlet and RW Large Memorial Hospital Bella Bella, BC, 1903–1935 Source: [Photograph]. Private Collection. Reprinted with permission. Note: Doris’s graduation year is incorrect; She graduated in 1925. Table 1 List of Known Nurses at of the Bella Bella ~ RW Large Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1901–1935 Staff Nurse 1901–1925 Surname Given Name Year Arrived Year Departed Kissack Reba 1901 1903 Alton Sara 1903 1910 (summer staff into the 1920s ca.) Murton unknown 1909 (ca.) unknown Howson unknown 1909 (ca.) unknown Wilson Eunice 1917 1922 https://qane-afi.casn.ca/journal/vol6/iss2/10 DOI: 10.17483/2368-6669.1224 2 Cook and Grypma: Nursing in Bella Bella Taylor M.E. 1922 1927 Callender H. 1922 unknown Nichols Doris 1925 1925 Buker Gertrude 1925 1925 Nichols Alma 1935 unknown Student Nurse 1903–1935 Surname Given Name Graduation Year Grant Evelyn Unknown Morgan Ada 1910 Jarvis K.L. 1911 Metcalf J.B. 1914 Wilson Eunice 1917 Wharton Laura 1917 Taylor M.E. 1922 Hiscock Florence 1922 Martin Julia 1923 Nichols Doris 1924 Buker Gertrude 1925 Allen Marie 1927 Way Gertrude 1927 Abbot Mary 1929 Nichols Alma 1930 Barner Maud 1931 Kelly Margaret 1931 Mackay Aimee 1933 Johnson Gertrude 1933 Fleming Myrtle 1933 McLeod Anna 1934 Baker Dorothy 1935 Published by Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière, 2020 3 Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2020], Art. 10 Briggs Helen 1935 Steven Dorothy 1935 Background Doris Nichols was my maternal great-grandmother. Although her history was largely unknown to me when I entered the nursing profession, during my graduate studies, it became apparent that her narrative “embod[ied] an opportunity—a process—for understanding a period of time that has not been fully described or appreciated, a time that occasionally has slipped into shadow” (Meijer Drees, 2013, p. xxv). The key primary sources for this study came from a rich private collection of over 30 documents and other artifacts related to Nichols as a nurse. These included a journal, poems, and notes written by Nichols; certificates; photographs; and unpublished family autobiographies. The journal is a daily account of Nichols later missionary nursing position (beyond the scope of this article); however, in it she wrote detailed lists of all the operations, maternity cases, and private cases she assisted during her training. Other primary sources (53 sources were reviewed) included the United Church of Canada archives, various publicly available Canadian digital archives, and a number of books written during this period by missionaries or their contemporaries. In addition, and to complement these sources, I conducted four semi-structured interviews with Doris’s daughters and niece. Taken together, these primary sources revealed a “contact zone” between Nichols, nursing education, and Indigenous persons (Pratt, 1992; Rutherdale & Pickles, 2005). The literature review for the specifics of this article relating to missionary nursing in the 1920s on BC’s coast revealed that in nearly all studies nurses were not the primary subject, found only between the lines, as it were. Highlighting instead related topics of Indigenous-settler health care delivery and health care as a tool for colonization (Lux, 2016; Meijer Drees, 2013; Vandenberg, 2015; Yeomans, 2006), the interconnectedness of spiritual care and Euro-Canadian medicine (Huang, 2017; Kelm, 1998), the health care experiences of Indigenous people (Kelm, 1998), and finally the missionary physicians (Large, 1968; McKervill, 1964) and women missionary experiences (Gagan, 1992; Hare & Barman, 2006; Kelm, 2006). Nevertheless I acquired immense insights from these secondary sources, and from many additional primary sources. The existing research established that missionary nurses trained and worked in isolated, challenging, and changing conditions, meeting high expectations and demanding workloads while navigating relationships in close quarters fraught with gender inequalities and racial tensions. This research was undoubtedly influenced by my subjectivity. In addition to being a nurse and Doris Nichols’s relative, I am a Christian and Canadian woman of mixed race, with Métis (Swampy Cree, paternal) and European (Scottish, English, and Danish) ancestry. These identities, I believe, motivated and sensitized my reading and interpretation of the primary and secondary sources. I stayed attentive to my subjectivity through constant self-reflection, critically engaging with each source while retaining empathy for all the persons studied. My aspiration was guided and supported over the course of several years by Sonya Grypma, an established nurse historian. Methods As a social history, this study focused on lesser-known people (nurse Nichols), her interactions with others, and her communal life experiences. Nurse historian Joy Buck (2008) describes the social history framework as an inclusive structure for “reinterpreting the past and https://qane-afi.casn.ca/journal/vol6/iss2/10 DOI: 10.17483/2368-6669.1224 4 Cook and Grypma: Nursing in
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